Brian Paddick: 'Successive Commissioners of the MPS have conducted charm offensives' but 'the difficulty comes when the police have to prosecute their 'friends'.'
The former deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (MPS) has accused the police force of having "prioritised their relationships with the media over pursuing an investigation" in the past.
In evidence to the Leveson inquiry Paddick called for "a re-setting of the rules" around the relationship between the press and police.
In his written statement he says "police have tried to manage their reputation" by "befriending newspaper editors and other people in positions of power in the media".
"Successive Commissioners of the MPS have conducted charm offensives, with mixed success, in order to get the press on their side," he adds. "The difficulty comes when the police have to prosecute their 'friends'."
He added that "this is not simply to save embarrassment but to preserve the public trust and confidence the police rely on in order to be effective."
In specific reference to the phone-hacking investigation originally carried out by the MPS in 2005/6, Paddick said "the history" of the probe "illustrates a worrying coalescence of two strands of media relations in the MPS".
"Firstly, the way in which anxiety about its reputation led to a privileged relationship between the MPS and the tabloids which in turn risked a serious conflict of interest when tabloid crimes were under investigation.
"In my view, this relationship may have been a factor in the failure to inform victims, the decision not to pursue search warrants or interview other journalists."
He added that, "secondly, the desire of the MPS to avoid public embarrassment and reputational damage may have led them not to pursue evidence of possible police corruption and to mislead the public about the ambit and scale of phone hacking."
In his evidence today Paddick also told the inquiry he finds it "difficult" to have "complete confidence" in the current investigations into alleged wrongdoing.
He told the inquiry he has "the utmost respect" for DAC Sue Akers, who is leading the investigations, and had "no doubt about her [Akers] integrity at all", but called for a senior officer from another force to take lead of the investigations.
He said the fact that "the police are investigating themselves" and are "relying" on News International's co-operation, "leaves open the possibility that, should evidence severely damaging to both the reputation of the Metropolitan Police and News International be discovered, such as the collusion of very senior police officers or those at the highest levels in News International, it could be covered-up to the benefit of both parties."
As a result he said "it is essential" that "independent scrutiny and oversight of the investigation is introduced", or that a police force "not so far implicated in the current investigations" takes over.
When questioned further on this evidence Paddick said he was previously unaware of a review of the phone-hacking investigation carried out by Durham police, adding that this was "reassuring".
In her own written evidence Akers said the "established structure, the MSC's relationship with the MPS investigations and the assistance it has given us to date, gives me confidence that the contentions made by Brian Paddick ... are completely without foundation".
In his evidence Paddick added that "a lot of junior officers feel very let down by senior officers, and I want and they want a MPS they can be proud of.
"The whole reason for me coming here is to try and improve things rather than run the police down."
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